Into that bar sidles DeWitt Albright (Tom Sizemore), a man wearing a lascivious slash of a moustache and a jaunty brown felt hat, who offers Easy easy money to find a girl called Monet (though Daphne Monet's appeal is not confined to lucre). CARL FRANKLIN's Devil in a Blue Dress (15) opens with a sinuous camera climbing above the sun-drenched streets of post-Second World War Los Angeles, over hawkers and hustlers, peering in at a first-floor window. Lovers of detective films will be familiar with this move: it is the moment when the camera reveals the embossed window of the private-dick agency - "Spade and Archer" - in The Maltese Falcon. Except this time we're shown not an office but a bar: Joppy's joint, where Ezekiel ("Easy") Rawlins (Denzel Washington) hangs out, needing a job before he can even think about getting his own premises. This opening is typical of the film's blend of familiarity and freshness.

Otherwise, an ideal excuse to be jingoistically patriotic about the state of contemporary pop.G Love & Special Sauce: Manchester Hacienda (0161 236 5051), tonight; Glasgow Garage (0141 332 1120), Tues; Leeds Irish Centre (0113 274 2486), Wed; Birmingham Foundry (0121 643 6843), Thurs. Rocket From the Crypt: Nottingham Clinton Rooms (0115 941 7709), Mon; Edinburgh Venue (0131 557 3073), Tues; Manchester Hop & Grape (0161 275 2959), Wed; Newport TJ's (01633 220984), Thurs; Astoria 2, W1 (0171 434 0403), Fri; Leeds Duchess (0113 245 3929), Sat.. They're invigoratingly loud and fast, but so's Concorde, and you wouldn't want to listen to that for an hour. A couple of tunes suggest better things: the angular riffing of "On a Rope", the echoes of Motorhead-with-a-brass-section in "Born in '69''.

Indie hopefuls tend to perform so grudgingly you want to apologise for dragging them away from their dressing rooms. Rocket From the Crypt play their breakneck thrash for - dare I say it - fun.However, whether British bands - or anyone else - have much else to learn from RFTC is unlikely. Rather, they could do with some songwriting lessons themselves. I appreciate the attention, that's why I'm here." Now this is an attitude that many a young British band could learn from. "You're gonna see one of the best shows of your damn lives, either that or your money back," he declared, Southern preacher cum fairground barker, to the crowd squeezed into the London Garage And, responding to some applause: "Thank you. And you'd probably add - again correctly - that their new album is called Scream, Dracula, Scream! (Elemental), that they trade under the names of Speedo, ND, Petey X, Atom, Apollo 9 and JC2000, and that they dress in identical black and silver shirts.Speedo is the creosote-voiced singer, who has the spirit of the young Elvis in the body of the old Elvis.